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Werth, Howard solve Zambrano-less Cubs

Sep 1, 2008 - 12:20 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Chicago Cubs could afford to lose games sporadically, especially considering the comfortable cushion they current have in the National League Central. However, their lofty playoff hopes can't survive easily without Carlos Zambrano.

Jayson Werth belted a solo homer and drove in three runs while Ryan Howard added three hits as the Philadelphia Phillies recorded a 5-3 victory over the Cubs, who were without their ace on Sunday.

Zambrano was scratched from his scheduled start due to arm fatigue, and the Phillies offense quickly jumped on his replacement, Sean Marshall. Howard smacked an RBI single in the first to open the scoring and Werth followed with a two-run double.

Zambrano isn't expected to miss significant time, but suffering from a dead arm period has been a staple in the powerful righthander's track record over the past few seasons.

Last year, he struggled mightily from August 3 to September 4 (0-5, 8.29 ERA), but went 4-1 with an 1.67 ERA - and an .195 batting-average against - over his final five regular-season starts.

"(Zambrano) is going on Tuesday," Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild said. "He's had a dead arm lately, but today he threw the ball long-toss and said he felt great. So we are confident he will be ready on Tuesday."

Either way, Marshall is a far cry from the perennial Cy Young Award candidate.

"I was glad to be able to help the team out and let Zambrano get an extra couple days of rest," Marshall said. "It was also to give Harden and Dempster some extra days as well. That should pay off well as we play big games in the month off September."

Werth also belted a solo shot in the fifth - his third homer in two days - extending Philadelphia's advantage to 4-2 against Marshall (3-4), who lasted 5 1/3 innings while coughing up five runs and nine hits.

"That's a real good team," Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa said. "That's a team we might see down the road in the playoff's. They came back after losing the first two and played good baseball against us. Jayson Werth had a monster series against us. Everytime he came up with two outs and men on base he seemed to deliver."

Marshall helped his own cause in the second, lacing an RBI single after Ronny Cedeno's run-scoring base hit to cut the Cubs' deficit to 3-2 against Phillies starter Jamie Moyer.

However, that's all Jamie Moyer (12-7) yielded, as the veteran tossed 5 1/3 effective frames, allowing just the two second-inning runs and eight hits to notch the win.

"The way the series started and the way the Cubs have been playing, it's nice to split the series," Moyer said. "The Cubs have been tough at Wrigley, and with us chasing the Mets, we have to win as many games as possible."

Philadelphia's (75-62) win kept it one game behind the first-place New York Mets (76-61) in the NL East. Meanwhile, the Cubs (85-52) saw their lead over the Milwaukee Brewers (80-56) in the NL Central dwindled to 4 1/2 games.

"The last two days we were fortunate to comeback and score some runs, they had rallies late on us but we held them off again today," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said.

Jimmy Rollins lifted a sacrifice fly in the sixth to put the game out of reach and steady bullpen work by Chad Durbin, J.C. Romero and Ryan Madson paved the way for Brad Lidge to record his 33rd save of the season.

"It was a good series and it was nice to earn the split before we head to Washington," Werth said. "I think we played pretty well, even though we lost the first two games."